


made a great deal of difference in the world

by aletterinthenameofsanity



Series: some stupid noble reason [8]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Black Hermione, Boy-Who-Lived Neville Longbottom, Brotherhood, Chronic Pain, Disabled Character, F/F, Head of Slytherin Remus Lupin, Hufflepuff Neville Longbottom, Indian Remus Lupin, Korean Characters, Korean Neville and Alice Longbottom, Lucius Malfoy Not Being As Much Of An Asshole, M/M, Minor Character Death, Slytherin Hermione Granger, Slytherin Remus Lupin, bc i still have not very positive feelings for the man, because J.K. Rowling can fight me at a Denny's, it looks like i am writing an AU for every character as a Slytherin, not very positive view of severus snape, you heard that right
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-03-07 16:47:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18877195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aletterinthenameofsanity/pseuds/aletterinthenameofsanity
Summary: When Remus Lupin sits under the Sorting Hat, he gets a choice. Do you want to be brave? Do you want to learn more? Do you want a family? Do you want to be more?Remus Lupin is a boy whose bones always feel too big for his body, a boy who doesn’t fit his own skin, a boy who wants to be more than his curse lets him be. What he knows about the Wizarding World is what he's read in his textbooks, and Voldemort hasn't risen yet. Slytherin's reputation for pureblood supremacy isn't recent yet. What Remus knows about Slytherin is ambition and cunning and loyalty.So Remus steps off of the stool, his tie turns green, and wizarding history changes just a little, at first, and then it changes a lot.A butterfly flaps its wings. A werewolf chooses a different color.And everything shifts.(One-half the story of Remus Lupin, one-half the story of everything that changes because of his one choice.)





	made a great deal of difference in the world

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sapphfics](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphfics/gifts), [felinedetached](https://archiveofourown.org/users/felinedetached/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Doubt thou the stars are fire](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17574581) by [felinedetached](https://archiveofourown.org/users/felinedetached/pseuds/felinedetached). 



> Title is from J.K. Rowling.
> 
> Once again I'm bringing you the crack-ships, the crack-bromances, and the crack-House-sortings you all know and love. This time around I'm bringing you three for the price of one, too, with a crack-ship in Alice Longbottom and Narcissa Malfoy, a crack-bromance in Draco and Neville, and not one but TWO crack-House-sortings with Remus and Hermione both in Slytherin. Hope you guys all like it!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to mostly function as a prologue to the second part of the story, but it grew. Quite a lot. Oops.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The main ship of this first section of the story will be Remus/Sirius, second section's will be Narcissa/Alice, though there are other minor ships and the ships won't be the main focus of the story, rather the family/friendship dynamics and effects House Sortings have. Still, hope you guys all like it!

_What part of yourself did you have to destroy in order to survive in the world this year?_

_But most importantly: what have you found to be unkillable?_

**-Arabelle Sicardi**

 

When Remus Lupin sits under the Sorting Hat, he gets a choice. Do you want to be brave? Do you want to learn more? Do you want a family? Do you want to _be_ more?

Remus Lupin is a boy whose bones always feel too big for his body, a boy who doesn’t fit his own skin, a boy who wants to be more than his curse lets him be. What he knows about the Wizarding World is what he's read in his textbooks, and Voldemort hasn't risen yet. Slytherin's reputation for pureblood supremacy isn't recent yet. What Remus knows about Slytherin is ambition and cunning and loyalty.

So Remus steps off of the stool, his tie turns green, and wizarding history changes just a little, at first, and then it changes a lot.

A butterfly flaps its wings. A werewolf chooses a different color.

And everything _shifts._

-

The Slytherins aren't stupid. When Remus disappears from the dorms once a month on the full moon, it doesn't make long to figure out what he is.

But Remus doesn't get kicked out. In order to fit in, to survive, you have to stand out only in ways that positively affect everyone else. Remus earns record points for Slytherin in his seven years in the house, breaking every record Hogwarts has ever known to carry his House to victory every year he's at Hogwarts.

Some of the other Slytherins are fond of him. Some of them just value him for the points he brings their house.

Either way, no one says a word about him being a werewolf. For seven years, as Remus’ best friends find ways to help him through the turns, even figuring out how to turn themselves into Animagi, not a single Slytherin breathes a word about the most open secret they all know.

(Even Severus Snape, who hates Remus and his friends for more personal reasons, keeps his lips shut on this one detail.)

Every month right before the full moon, Remus finds the proper amount of wolfsbane sitting next to his bed. Some months, he’s not sure who put it there. On the months where he can’t remember scraping up the money, he suspects that it’s Sirius.

(His dormmates are the ones who make sure that his wolfsbane stays filled, both for their protection and Remus’ continued productivity for Slytherin. No one ever mentions it, though. Slytherins have a sense of pride as well as a sense of cleverness.)

-

Let’s be clear: Remus is still friends with Peter, Sirius, and James in this timeline. He still meets them on the train, still becomes an integral part of a group with a long-haired rebel and a bespectacled prankster and a tiny jokester.

He's in Slytherin, and he makes connections there, but his best friends are still the Marauders. And he is completely loyal to them, though he also makes plenty of allies in Slytherin. He is loyal to House and friends, a good Slytherin through and through.

The Marauders are clever enough to be Slytherins, that's obvious. Getting away with so many pranks, learning how to become Animagi, with no one realizing either- well, Remus knows that his best friends would work just as well in Slytherin as they would in their beloved Gryffindor.

But he also knows that he himself would probably work well with them. He's not particularly brave, but to be honest, he thinks that anyone could learn to thrive in any house, as long as one is willing to learn.

And he's _happy_ he chose Slytherin. The connections he’s making, the reputation he’s building- he can do a lot with that.

He can make changes. He can be something greater.

-

Regulus Black enters Hogwarts a year after Remus does.

Remus Lupin is already something of a Slytherin legend by this point, and despite his muggleborn status Regulus is all too willing to get to know him a bit better, to make himself Remus' ally in perfect Slytherin fashion.

And through getting to know Remus, Regulus gets to know his brother in a new light. He hasn’t really seen much of Sirius since he was first Sorted into Slytherin and their mother screamed him out of the house, but as Regulus gets to know Remus, he gets re-exposed to his brother.

(And though he will never admit it, he likes what he sees.)

Through Regulus' comments to their mother on holidays about Sirius being friends with such an exemplary Slytherin as Remus, Walburga's hateful comments and verbal abuse slow down just a little bit, to the point where Sirius doesn't get disinherited- he gets placed on a sort of probation. If he makes one major wrong move outside of being in Gryffindor, then he's off of the family tree.

But for now- Sirius still is part of the Black family, for good or bad. He has access to Black connections and funds, and he uses them both for his friends' benefits and his own.

And he keeps up a relationship with his little brother. Even if that relationship isn't the closest in the world, it still  _exists_ _,_ and that's what matters.

-

Remus continues his streak of house points and perfect grades and the rest of the Slytherins don't say a word about it, but they do admire and appreciate him. They absolutely love the reputation he brings to them, the legend he brings to Slytherin's name.

(Though many of them will figure out his werewolf secret, few of them will come to realize everything else he manages to pull off outside of his perfect Slytherin facade.

No one will ever realize, for example, that it is Remus and his group of friends that manage to create one of the most clever pieces of magic for the span of about ten years, when they make the Marauders' Map. Very few people realize all of the pranks that can be attributed to the friends and James' invisibility cloak.

This is something that doesn't often gets talked about, in the stories told about Remus' time at Hogwarts. They end their school careers in a war, but they do not begin them in one. They get to have plenty of fun in their school years, breaking plenty of rules even if Remus is absolutely perfect about never getting personally caught doing anything.)

-

In fifth year, Remus becomes prefect. Horace Slughorn might have chosen someone else in a different setting, this is the boy who has spent five years winning record points for Slytherin. There is no one better to be prefect then the boy who has been top of his class, who has been the ideal student, who never puts a single foot out of line and excels at everything.

Regulus sweeps his dark gaze over Remus before giving him the smallest of smiles and a nod. "You deserved it, Lupin," he says, and his voice is neither congratulatory nor resentful, betraying none of his brother's over-emotionality, and Remus gives him a sharp smile back.

"Thanks, Black," he says, and Regulus heads on to his Potions class.

-

Severus Snape is not a redemption arc; he is a subplot on obsession, a cautionary tale for those who thinks obsessing over a woman for years will somehow bring success.

He doesn’t call Lily a mudblood- instead, he slings slurs at Remus, snarling the term "half-breed" at him when Remus' friend James strings him up.

Lily stops being his friend, despite his hastily made apologies, and he turns entirely to being a Death Eater, joining up with the other Slytherins around Remus, mostly older than their year.

-

In seventh year, despite the looming war, Remus and Sirius start dating.

And absolutely no one, Slytherin or Gryffindor, is surprised. When they hold hands at dinner, when they cheer on Quidditch matches together, when they kiss in the hallways, no one blinks. The only real response they get is Professor McGonagall telling them, a small, almost-fond smile on her face, to just tone the PDA down a little bit.

To be honest, the most reaction they get comes from outside of Hogwarts. 

“Somehow, mother is actually _proud_ of the fact that I’m dating a Slytherin,” Sirius nearly spits, and Remus hates Walburga Black with all his might but he does almost want to defend his House. (He knows, logically, that Sirius doesn't hate the fact that Remus is a Slytherin, that he only is irritated with his mother, but still.)

“Wait until she figures out that Lupin’s a werewolf,” Regulus says from the couch opposite them in the Slytherin common room, and both Remus and Sirius’ head snap in his direction. “What?” he asks with a poised nonchalance. “Were we still pretending that everyone doesn’t know?”

“Everyone knows?” Remus asks, practiced Slytherin bravado slipping in utter shock.

Regulus nods. “No one will say a word, though, don’t worry- you win us too many points.”

“You mean you would have told the world that Remus is a werewolf, thus endangering his life, if he hadn’t been useful to you?” Sirius says, voice dripping with disgust.

Regulus turns his nose up just a little to his brother. “Slytherin has their ways, that you would have learned if you’d been Sorted here. Your boyfriend’s a werewolf in a time where pureblood prejudice is in the ascendancy- our more utilitarian House saw his use and decided to protect him. Be happy."

Well, Remus knows how to read a room. He knows when tension needs to be cut. So he steps in between the two brothers. “Well, Sirius, _my_ parents will love you,” Remus promises, and Sirius smiles that crooked smile at him.

"Really?"

Remus nods. "Of course. You make me happy, and that's all they care about."

Sirius gives Remus a fond smile. "That's beautiful, Moony."

"Also, the fact that you're rich doesn't hurt," Remus says, smile teasing, and Sirius rolls his eyes and  _wingardium-leviosa_ s a pillow at Remus' face.

-

The summer he graduates, Remus applies to be a Professor at Hogwarts. He spent his seventh year alternating between studying for his NEWTs, preparing for war, and working under the soon-to-retire Professor Baggins, who is stepping down from teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts this year.

Headmaster Dumbledore has his doubts as to Remus being in the position, but Remus doesn't care that Dumbledore never entirely warmed up to Remus. The Professorship goes through the Board of Directors, who say that he he has proven himself as capable for such a job, accepting his application with one condition: Remus can only get the position if he can guarantee a steady supply of wolfsbane.

And Remus has no money to do such a thing. He's from a working class family, and he goes to Hogwarts on scholarship. There's no way that Remus, a few weeks past eighteen, can find a way to earn the money for wolfsbane when the only job he's had so far is working at Flourish and Blott's during the summer.

Sirius, who he's been dating for a year now, has a simple solution: "Marry me."

Remus' jaw drops at the sheer audacity of the statement. He knows how much marriage is valued in the Pureblood world, how many magical spells and promises are involved in a marriage. He knows how much it means to tie Sirius' name- and the Blacks, now that his mother is dead and he is the only heir left from the Walburga- to Remus'. "We've been dating for a year. Are you fucking serious?"

Sirius grins that confident grin of his. "Of course I am, Moony. I always am."

Remus rolls his eyes. "Oh, fuck off, Sirius," he says, voice thick with fondness, and Sirius' grin shifts just slightly to something fonder, kinder. "Are you sure you want to marry me?"

"You're my best friend, Remus, no matter what James thinks. This may be a bit soon, but I know I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and whatever form that may take. But to be honest, I love you more than I can say. You're fucking amazing, Remus Lupin, and not to be sappy, but you're pretty much the love of my life. No, screw that, you _are_ the love of my life, and I want to spend the rest of my days with you, if you'll have me."

And in the face of such a proposal, Remus is all too happy to lean forward, kiss Sirius, and say, "Of course I'll marry you."

- 

The wedding is simple, because of the war going on, but it's not without fun. When the Marauders are hosting a party, after all, one can guarantee hysterics.

James is Sirius’ best man and Peter is Remus’, and they play the roles to a 't,' pulling out plenty of horror stories and embarrassing anecdotes that have Remus wanting to hide under a table. There are plenty of antics, from disco balls that spray color on all of the guests (Remus got the inspiration from Holi, like his mother used to celebrate before she moved here from India) to Muggle music to confuse the Pureblood guests on the list.

Even Sirius' Black cousins, invited to keep them appeased about Sirius being the Heir, manages not to completely ruin things. Remus makes sure to keep them plied with fancy food and wine in the corner, surrounded by as many pureblood Slytherins as he could scrounge up, and they stay mostly quiet.

All in all, the wedding is as fun and beautiful and magical as a wartime wedding can be. The night ends with Remus in his husband's arms, and for once, he feels no ache in his bones. Instead, all he feels are Sirius' lips on his own and laughter in his mouth.

-

Then Regulus, younger than them, still in school, turns to the Death Eaters. He disappears from school one day in September and returns four days later, shadows under his eyes. Remus, his now DADA Professor, keeps an eye on him. He, unlike any of the other members of the Order or its allies, understands why Regulus became a Death Eater. Remus understands dedicating oneself to survival, after all.

But he does worry, and so he watches Regulus closely.

 

He shows up at Grimmauld Place on the Winter Solstice, halfway through Winter Break, and Sirius has one hand on his wand as he greets his brother at the door. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't hex you for joining He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named," Sirius growls.

Regulus gives his brother a weary smile, a raw grin that shows the sheer depth of his exhaustion. "You wouldn't want to hex your double agent, would you?" he asks, and he's so young, so fucking young, and Remus wants to slap him for taking the Dark Mark to save them all, but he's a Slytherin. He knows cleverness and knows that nobility sometimes takes people in very dangerous directions.

Instead, Remus just says: "Come on in, Regulus," he says, and Regulus gives him a sharp smile.

"There's that Slytherin courtesy, Remus," Regulus says, and ducks into the townhouse.

When Remus looks at his husband, Sirius' expression is halfway between pride and fear. "He's going to get himself killed," Sirius says, and Remus won't lie to his husband, not about something he cannot guarantee.

"We'll help him survive," Remus says.

-

For a day, and only that, Regulus gets to spend the holiday with his brother and brother-in-law. And for that one day, they don't have to pretend to be enemies or act like student or teacher or put on any sense of propriety- instead, for this day, they get to just be a small, tiny family celebrating a holiday. They exchange small gifts, have a minor prank war, even show Regulus his first Muggle movie.

All in all, it's a moment of laughter and love in the middle of the despair of war. It's a moment that Remus cherishes every single second of, because he knows that it can't last.

-

The war enters their homes and makes itself a cozy resting place there. It stays, turning their days into nightmares and their rooms into war councils and their very existence a battle.

Remus spends his days at Hogwarts praying that he won't get an owl with a letter about his husband's death.

He prays that he won't get a letter about Regulus' death, either. Regulus, most days, shows up for class on time, but sometimes, well- Dumbledore just tells Remus not to worry about it, that Regulus is doing the right thing. And Remus wants to yell at Dumbledore, because his brother-in-law is too young, Regulus is just a kid,  _what the fuck are you thinking, Albus?_

But he never says a word to Albus, instead biting his tongue. Remus knows the neccessities of war. He knows how sometimes, it really is the ends justify the means. They can't let Voldemort win. They have to make sure that the world stays safe for Muggleborns and Muggles alike. 

-

When Lord Voldemort orders Lucius to kill his former housemate two years after Remus graduates, Lucius makes the only brave decision of his life and refuses to kill Lupin, who won Slytherin the house cup in his second year and Lucius’ final year. Lupin, who’s only ever brought honor and glory to the name of Slytherin.

Bellatrix Lestrange, Lucius’ brother-in-law, steps up and casts the Killing Curse on Lucius, and he falls.

(Bellatrix Lestrange disappears in the weeks after Lucius dies. No one really ever figures out how, and no one really cares. Voldemort is too busy hunting down the Chosen Boy of the Prophecy, and the rest of the world has no regard for a murderer.

Narcissa Malfoy only ever uses the Killing Curse once, and it’s to bring her husband’s death to justice.)

-

When Dumbledore informs Lily and James of the prophecy, three years after they've graduated, they turn to their best friends for advice.

And Remus? He knows how Slytherins think. He knows that they’ll always go for the weakest link in the group, try to find any way in.

So what’s the only way to keep Harry and his parents safe? Make James or Lily the Secret Keeper, as they’ll never leave the house. Their friends will be able to Floo in and out with knowledge provided to them by Lily and James, but even if one of them gets captured they won’t be able to tell Voldemort where the house is. Lily, James, and Harry will be safe.

So Remus points out the obvious flaw in the plan to their friends at dinner the night the Potters lay out the initial plans.

“One of you two has to be the Secret Keeper,” Remus tells Lily and James, “Not one of us. Not Peter, not Sirius.”

Sirius raises an eyebrow at his husband. “You don’t trust us?”

Remus almost smiles at his husband in reassurance, but this is too serious a topic to joke. This is life and death they’re debating, here. "It's the perfect plan," he says, "No one will be able to get in or out. Trust me, okay? No one I love is dying because of some Dark Lord."

Being in Slytherin has taught him how to be clever, but it has also taught him how to be proud. It has taught him how to be confident in himself.

And Remus, well- he knows that this will work. There are no chunks in this plan, not that he can see.

The people he loves are going to be safe.

-

(In a side story, we have Peter. Peter Pettigrew, who's really good at self-preservation. His decision to betray James and Lily in one timeline is a bad one, a horrible one, one that eventually causes his death.

But here? He doesn't ever do that. Instead, he fights alongside his best friends in the war and actually ends up saving Sirius' life with a well-placed _Protego_ charm during battle.

In the years after the war, he's one of Harry Potter's beloved Uncles. Harry loves his Uncle Peter and his Aunt Jackie, Peter's eventual wife, to no end, loves chasing rat-Peter around on his broom.

Peter ends up pursuing a career as a small business owner, starting his own joke shop in Diagon Alley. It's not only wonderfully satisfying to turn the thing that got him into trouble into his livelihood, but it's also nice to be able to bring joy to everyone after the war.

Peter Pettigrew has the potential to be a story about cowardice, but here, where he never has the opportunity to betray his friends, he becomes a story about joy. About happiness. About loyalty.)

-

Remus isn’t perfect. His plan to save Lily, James, and Harry leaves one gaping hole, but to be honest, he couldn’t have known about the possibility of the Longbottoms being targeted. All he knew was that the Potters were going to die and that he had to figure out a way to save them.

Three months after Lily, Harry, and James go into hiding, Frank Longbottom dies saving his wife and son’s lives. In return, the killing curse bounces off of Neville Longbottom and kills Voldemort, leaving his son with a leg crippled by dark magic and a wife who has to bury her husband and learn how to raise her son on her own.

And Remus doesn't know how not to feel guilty. He knows, logically, that it wasn't his fault, that he couldn't save everyone, especially if he didn't even know they were targets, but his Gryffindor friends have rubbed off on him too much. 

 

-

A month after Frank Longbotttom dies, Regulus Black follows him to the grave. 

A teary-eyed Kreacher delivers a locket to Sirius, telling him with a grumble that Master Regulus wants them to destroy it, that he said that they could find a way to destroy it in the library.

Kreacher has never entirely warmed up to Remus, not with his werewolf state and all, but he is a pretty well-respected Slytherin and a Professor so he never really gets insulted by the house elf. Instead, Kreacher just mostly side-eyes him somewhat throughout most of Sirius and Remus' searching of the Black library.

Eventually, they hit the jackpot when they come across a very old book containing old spells detailing how to reveal the exact nature of dark magic. They can only be performed by very powerful and skilled wixen, one who can read the exact differences in auras, but Remus is the Defense Against The Dark Arts Professor. He is a legend in Slytherin. He has not spent seven years working his arse off to shattering expectations only to give up when his brother-in-law sacrificed his life to defeat Voldemort.

So Remus spends nearly all of winter break using the spell on the locket, reading the changes in aura, and searching the entire library for information on how to destroy a "Horcrux." 

He hits paydirt the day after the Winter Solstice when he discovers a small, black tome in one of the back sections of the Black library. Through reading, he learns taht there are very few ways to destroy a Horcrux. Unforgivable curses, goblin-enchanted weaponry, basilisk venom-

Well, Sirius grew up in a family of Dark Magic that was not unfamiliar with the use of Unforgivables. Grimmauld Place is warded so that Unforgivables are undetectable. Sirius, growing up, was even taught how to use them.

Sirius knows how to use an Unforgiveable, but he has never been able to pull off an Unforgiveable before. In order to properly make one work, you have to mean it with everything you have. And he's never been able to.

But now, faced with his little brother's sacrifice, with Regulus dying only two years after his graduation from Hogwarts- well, Sirius raises his wand and green flashes out at that locket.

-

After they destroy the locket, Kreacher is a lot nicer. He doesn't ever start loving Sirius, but he stops insulting them and actually listens to what they say.

And beyond that- Remus makes it his mission to make sure that  _all_ of the heroes of the war get their names remembered. Slytherin paid its price in blood and bone- their names deserve to be remembered alongside the traditional heroes of Gryffindor and the rest of the Order.

Regulus Black dies a hero, and his name gets recorded as legend alongside Frank Longbottom's.  

-

Horace announces that he's going to retire and Alice Longbottom applies to fill the position. When she interviews for the position, Remus understands her want to be with the children, to find a purpose beyond just her Auror training.

Then she takes the Potions position, and Remus becomes Head of Slytherin.

Well, this is certainly something he can do something with. 

-

Remus finally starts not to feel as guilty about Frank Longbottom's death when Alice tells him over lunch one day after winter break that she's started to date Narcissa Black.

It's been a few years since the dreadful day that Frank died, and she may still be grieving, but she's not dwelling in the pit of grief over Frank's death. She's learning how to move on, how to fall in love again. And that's all that Remus could ask for.

-

In the years after Remus becomes a Professor, every year finds kids trying to break Remus' records, mostly Slytherin, though a few not.

By the end of their seven years at Hgowarts, nearly every Slytherin ends up loving Professor Lupin. His reputation for winning record numbers of house points is one still told by pureblood parents to their children, and he’s often just a favorite professor in his own right.

For eleven years, students filter in and out of his classroom, most of them enjoying their time there. A lot of students, however, end up trying to break Remus’ records for house points and marks. They all fail, though a few come close, and Remus is secretly cheering them all on the whole time. He doesn't have a strong intrinsic connection to his wins- no, they were what were needed to build him connections and help him survive.

His husband takes the position of Lord Black in the Wizengamot and begins to create change alongside Lord Potter and Lady Malfoy. Change is slow to come, but it  _does_ come, thanks to the examples of "half-breeds" and Muggleborns who have proven themselves like Remus.

And then finally comes the day that the little boy he saved boards the train to Hogwarts alongside the little boy Remus never meant to orphan, and Remus is faced with teaching both Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom.

Well, he took this job for many reasons, and one of which, the most important of which, was to show kids just what they could be. Just what their choices could give them.

So hopefully, he can do the same with these two children whose lives have already been impacted by his own choices. Hopefully he can show them, even if in some small way, the power their own decisions have in the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second section is MUCH longer than this first part, but I hope you guys all liked this part anyway! This is my first planned two-parter in my HP!AUs series, and


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